Sex, sport and justice: reframing the ‘who’ of citizenship and the ‘what’ of justice in European and UK sport policy

Devine, Cathy (2015) Sex, sport and justice: reframing the ‘who’ of citizenship and the ‘what’ of justice in European and UK sport policy. Sport Education and Society, 21 (8). pp. 1193-1212.

Preview

PDF - Accepted Version Available under License CC BY-NC-ND Download (338kB) | Preview

Abstract

Universalist claims are often made about sport which is, as a consequence, increasingly written into national and international policy documents as an entitlement of citizenship or even as a human right. Further, in most countries in the world physical education (PE) is a compulsory component of the education of children, and sport is seen as central to this (Hardman and Marshall 2005). Therefore, the ‘who’ of sport must aspire to be egalitarian: relevant to, and meaningful for, girls and boys, men and women. In this context two fundamental questions are asked:
1. Do all citizens or humans want to participate in sport? If so, which sport is this: ‘sport for sports sake’, ‘sport for good’, or ‘sport for all’?
2. Given the architecture of sport, PE, and active recreation, what are justice and equality in relation to this?
Feminist political and citizenship theory is used to explore the ‘what’ of justice and the extent to which the policy discourse of sport, active recreation and PE citizenship in Europe and Britain, addresses gender justice. It is argued that formal sport, PE, and active recreation citizenship rights might be accorded to all individuals and regarded as gender neutral, but that this masks an androcentric conception of movement citizenship. Inequalities of power derive from both the sexual division of labour and the sexual division of play. Therefore, women are more likely to be second class sport, PE and active recreation citizens than men resulting in a democratic deficit in relation to movement citizenship.

Item Type:	Article
Journal / Publication Title:	Sport Education and Society
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis (Routledge): SSH Titles
ISSN:	1470-1243
Departments:	Academic Departments > Medical & Sport Sciences (MSS) > Sports and Physical Activity
Depositing User:	Cathy Devine
Date Deposited:	21 Mar 2016 11:08
Last Modified:	12 Jan 2024 13:45
URI:	https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/2066

Downloads